Newswise — During hurricane season, coastal dwellers are faced with constant uncertainty about when and where the next disaster may strike. For many, that anxiety can be more distressing than the actual storms.
So says Dr. Craig Marker, director of the Anxiety Treatment Center at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
"Worriers often equate uncertainty with a bad outcome," he says. "They jump to the worse possible conclusions. As humans, we have this great capacity to predict the future and its consequences. But our anxieties can often bias this prediction. While this valuable fear system helps us prepare, it can become a burden when we can't do anything more to get ready."
A core feature of worry is the inability to tolerate uncertainty. That's why some people say they'd rather know for sure that the outcome will be bad, rather than be left in suspense of not knowing for sure.
Worrying is a way for people to "gain certainty." "It can help people feel like they're doing something to solve the problem," Marker says. "Worriers will look for information and possible solutions to every problem they can come up with, but the answers " which are never certain " won't satisfy them."
Another cause of the worry and uncertainty during hurricane season is what researchers call the 'availability heuristic.'
"We have very vivid pictures of hurricanes 'available' to us," he says. "We can easily remember people on rooftops with water all around them while watching television images of Hurricane Katrina. We can remember the images of roofs blown off of houses during Hurricane Andrew. What is not available to us is the information of how many storms have gone by us without incident. We don't easily remember the rainy day that Hurricane Ernesto gave us in 2006."
Marker offers the following advice to those feeling anxious about impending storms:
* Plan when possible. "When we're stressed by the uncertainty of the weather forecast, we can ask ourselves what we can do to prepare. But once preparation is complete, ask yourself whether there's an advantage in continuing to worry. Would you be less anxious if you accepted that you just don't know what's going to happen? Is your worry helping or hurting?"
* Keep perspective. "Remember that events are not all good or all bad," he says. "Think about the opportunities that a hurricane can provide: a greater sense of community, meeting neighbors or helping out people in need. Although many bad things can happen, there can be good things that may change and shape the way we live."
* Limit media consumption. "We should remind ourselves that the distressing images in the media are not balanced to all the potential outcomes. Hurricanes can be awful, but they don't always do the damage we see on television."
* Remember other risks. "We are constantly accepting risks: driving, flying in airplanes, starting families, starting jobs," he says. "Each of these risks we face and we cope. Often we cope much better than we can imagine. We have handled adversity in the past, we can also handle it in the future."
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